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Petama Forum February Inner Maturing by the Aid of Music - 1 from Hazrat Inayat Khan: 'Mysticism of Sound and Music' |
Before commencing this subject I should like to explain first what the word ‘Inner Life’ means. Is it goodness which may be called ‘Inner Life’, or is it wonderworking, a power to produce miracles, or a great intellectual power? The answer is: No. The whole of life in all its aspects is one music, and to tune our self to the harmony of this perfect music is the real Inner attainment. You may ask: ‘What is it that keeps a human being back from Inner attainment?’ The answer is that it is the denseness of this material existence, and the fact that a human being is unconscious of his Inner being - divided into limitations. This prevents that free flow and free movement which are the nature and character of life. What do I mean by this denseness? There is a rock, and you want to produce sound from it. It does not give resonance, it does not answer your desire to produce sound, but the string or wire will give an answer to the tone you want. You strike it, and it answers. There are objects which give resonance to sound. You wish to produce a sound in them, and they resound; they make your music complete. So it is with human nature. One person is heavy and dull. You tell him something, he cannot understand; you speak to him, he will not hear. He will not respond to music, to beauty, or to art. What is it? It is denseness. There is another person who is ready to appreciate and understand music and poetry, or beauty in any form. In character, in manner - in every form - beauty is appreciated by such a person. It is this which is the awakening of the soul, which is the living condition of the heart, and it is this which is the real Inner attainment. Inner attainment is to make the spirit live, to become conscious. When a human being is not conscious of soul and spirit, and is only conscious of the material being, he is dense, he is away from spirit. You may ask: ‘What is spirit, and what is matter?’ The difference between spirit and matter is as the difference between water and snow. Frozen water is snow, and melted snow is water. It is spirit in its denseness which we call matter; it is matter in its fineness which may be called spirit. Once a materialist said to me: ‘I do not believe in any spirit or soul or hereafter. I believe in eternal matter.’ I said to him: ‘Your belief is not very different from mine. Only, that which you call eternal matter, I call spirit. It is a difference in terms. That is not a thing to dispute about, because we both believe in eternity. So long as we meet in eternity, what difference does it make if the one calls it matter and the other calls it spirit? It is one life from beginning to end.’ When the soul is attuned to God, every action becomes music.
Gayan - Alankaras (these E-book are free of all charge - use their treasures well!) |
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